For art history papers, the most common citation style is Chicago.
Purdue OWL is a website designed to help create citations.
The Chicago Manual of Style is an online guide for Chicago style and citations.
Here are some quick citation references in Chicago style. The two sources above are great for any other source types you may need to cite.
BOOK
Biblography: Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. PublicationLocation: Publisher, Year Published.
Footnote: Firstname, Lastname, Title of Book (Location: Publisher, YearPublished), pages cited.
Townsend, Rhys. The East Side of the Agora: The Remains Beneath the Stoa of Attalos. Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1995.
1. Rhys Townsend, The East Side of the Agora: The Remains Beneath the Stoa of Attalos (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1995), 55.
ARTICLE
Bibliography: Lastname, Firstname. "Article Title." Title of Journal Volume, issue (year): pages of journal.
Footnote: Firstname Lastname, "Article Title," Journal Volume, issue (year): pages cited.
Wilson, Kristina. "The Intimate Gallery and the "Equivalents": Spirituality in the 1920s Work of Stieglitz." The Art Bulletin 85, no. 4 (2003): 746-68.
2. Kristina Wilson, "The Intimate Gallery and the 'Equivalents': Spirituality in the 1920s Work of Stieglitz," The Art Bulletin 85, no. 4 (2003): 749.
WORK OF ART
Bibliography: Lastname, Firstname. Work Title. Year, material. Name of Museum, Location.
Garton, John. Tomasso and Giovanni Talking. 2017, digital print, 11″ x 14″.
Maybe you need to write a paper, or want to find out more information on a topic. Perhaps it's time to start work on a big term paper. Learning how to research is a skill that takes time to learn, but can make academic work much easier. These steps are useful for whatever it is you are looking for. Remember, if you ever get stuck, the librarians are here to help!
Start by asking questions. If you have been assigned a paper for a class, what is the prompt asking for?
A useful tool to pick or narrow down a topic is Credo Reference. Credo is an encyclopedia database with general information on a wide variety of topics. You could also try an encyclopedia like Encyclopedia Britannica for general articles on many subjects.
Both of these are great to start with, but as your professors will remind you, these are not sources you should rely on to write your paper. Use them to get ideas and build keywords, but your end product should rely on published scholarly work, not general encyclopedia information.
Try using Credo's Mind Maps tool to narrow down a topic and find search terms:
Once you have a good idea of your topic, and some keywords, it's time to look for your material.
The first step is to determine what kinds of sources you will need:
If you are writing on Caravaggio, you will need biographies about his life and his work, images of his art, and likely scholarly articles analyzing baroque painting and his work.
If you need to research a contemporary artist, like Kara Walker, you may need to look at current news articles, journals that are currently being published, and information on installation art.
Or, if your research is on the architecture of a building, like Monticello, you will probably want to look at archival material, plans and writings of the architect, and scholarly articles on neo-classical architecture.
Here are some examples of types of sources:
PRIMARY SOURCES (original material)
Works of Art
Diaries
Letters
Architectural plans
Original photographs
Research data or surveys
Speeches
Artist statements
Criticisms (contemporary to art period)*
SECONDARY SOURCES (describe and analyze primary sources)
Scholarly articles
Books
Biographies
Textbooks
Critical essays (non-contemporary to art period)*
Commentaries
TERTIARY SOURCES (organize secondary sources, provide general information without analysis)
NB: As your professors will remind you, these sources should NOT be the foundation of scholarly work, but instead can lead you to secondary sources you might need.
Encyclopedias (like Credo Reference or Encyclopedia Britannica)
Indexes
Abstracts
Almanacs
Databases
* Art criticism, when written at the same time as the art is produced, is a primary source. Critics of Michelangelo's time describing Michelangelo's works are primary sources. Critics writing in the twentieth century about Michelangelo's work are secondary sources.
The next step is creating keywords.
Now that you have chosen a topic and determined which sources you want to use, it's time to search! There are many different kinds of databases you can use. See also the "In-Depth Research Guides" tab for more databases specific to your topic.
This video has helpful suggestions to improve your searching skills:
GENERAL DATABASES
These search a wide range of libraries and materials all at once.
DISCOVERY TOOL | The search tool on Clark's home page searches 90% of Clark's databases and books. {Help with Discovery}
LIBRARY CATALOG | Clark's library catalog searches all of the books, journals by title, and dissertations in the library. {Help with Catalog}
GOOGLE SCHOLAR | A general search for articles, both full-text and citations. {Help with Google Scholar}
WORLDCAT | WorldCat searches for any kind of library materials in all the libraries in the world. **BEST BET (for books)**
JSTOR | Search for full-text journal articles in social sciences and humanities. {Help with JSTOR} **BEST BET (for articles)**
PROJECT MUSE | More full-text journal articles in social sciences and humanities
MOTHER OF ALL ART HISTORY WEBSITES | Guide to links to programs, databases, and image resources.
ART LITERATURE DATABASES
These search libraries and publications for literature analysing or related to art.
ART & ARCHITECTURE COMPLETE | Scholarly articles (frequently full-text) on art and architecture. **BEST BET**
HUMANITIES INTERNATIONAL COMPLETE | Scholarly articles in humanities. Some overlap with Art & Architecture Complete.
ART DISCOVERY GROUP | Search of all art libraries, including university art museums.
GETTY RESEARCH PORTAL | Access to digitized art history texts from a variety of institutions, mostly archival text materials.
NEW YORK ART RESOURCES CONSORTIUM | Searches Frick, Brooklyn Museum, and MoMA libraries.
EUROPEANA | Searches scanned books, artifacts, music and artworks from museums and libraries in Europe.
IMAGE DATABASES
These resources search libraries, archives, and museums for images of art works.
GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE | A database of museum collections, artistic themes, and arts experiments, useful for images and exploring. **BEST BET**
SHARED SHELF COMMONS | Images from libraries, archives, and museums all around the world.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS | Search for images by title, artist, or museum. **BEST BET**
ARTSY | Search for art, artists, and exhibitions.
WORLDIMAGES | Search and browse a collection of art works.
ARTCYCLOPEDIA | Search for images, artists, and museums.
When looking for images, most museums have searchable catalogs that will help you find works of art!
Use the "FIND MATERIAL" tab for help locating books and articles once you have found them!
So you've found the book or article that you need in a database, and now you need to access it:
BOOKS - Using the Library Catalog
Find the Call Number using the library catalog.
Where in the library is this book? Hover here to find out.
{Not in our library? Check out ILL!}
ARTICLES - online or in print (SEE ALSO - Journal Locator)
You might find articles full-text online from databases like JSTOR, Academic OneFile, or Project Muse. If you only find a citation or abstract, and want the full article, you can use Google Scholar or Journal Locator(see below) to see if Clark has it in print or online somewhere else.
If Clark does not have access to an article, do not fear! Use Interlibrary Loan to request it from another library! Check out the guide below on using Interlibrary Loan.
You can find helpful guides to some of these databases on our How-To Guides page. Here are some quick links: JSTOR, Google Scholar, More on Google Scholar.
Journal Locator - Find journals online and in print from Clark's collection
Journal Locator is a database of journals online and in print that you have access to at Clark. To use this search, you must know the title of the journal your article is cited in. You might use Journal Locator after you use WorldCat or find an article cited in an author's bibliography.
For example, maybe you have this citation:
INTERLIBRARY LOAN - Request materials from worldwide libraries
Found a book or an article you need, but Clark doesn't have it? Use Interlibrary Loan to request it from a different library!
Use the visual guide on the bottom of the page for help with Interlibrary Loan-- or ask for help from one of our librarians.
It's great to have good sources and know what you want to write about, but it's important to stay organized.
1. Keep track of citation information for anything you read or take notes on. See "CITING SOURCES" on the left sidebar of this guide for citation advice.
2. Use a bibliography manager like Endnote or Zotero to manage all of your sources. See below for more on these!
3. Keep a journal - write down databases you've used, keywords that have worked (or haven't worked!)
4. Have an electronic and a physical folder. Keep your materials on your computer organized, AND have a physical folder for notes, articles, and any other physical sources that you might use.
5. As you take notes, think about big ideas and themes that connect sources together -- and write them down.
This video has some helpful tips on creating citations. See the sidebar on the left for more citation resources:
USING A BIBLIOGRAPHY MANAGER - ENDNOTE OR ZOTERO
As you take classes and work on research projects, you will begin to find a variety of sources. It can be useful to keep track of these sources in one spot, using a bibliography manager. Endnote and Zotero are software options that organize bibliographic information, PDFs, and notes in a central location. You can create a personal library of your sources!
works with Microsoft Word to format citations (both in-text and as a bibliography); creates a reference library from a variety of sources; and allows you to search and sort citations within Endnote. It is free to Clark students through ITS if you follow this link. Get help using Endnote through Clark's Endnote how-to guides: Download Endnote, Cite Sources, Add References, and Organize References.
is a reference manager similar to Endnote. It allows you to create citations directly from databases and webpages, automatically format bibliographies and citations for Microsoft Word and Open Office, and organize citations in a searchable library. Zotero is free and open-sourced online. You can use the online interface, or download the standalone version, which syncs to your online account so you can access it anywhere. You can also use extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, which allow you to create citations from most webpages and databases. This is a non-Clark Youtube playlist of help guides for Zotero.
